Length: Basically, every submitted tossup should at least make it to the sixth line (10 point, TNR, 1 inch margins) and should not exceed the eighth line.

Difficulty: I'd be shooting for about the same difficulty as last year's CO. But, just as I always say - I don't care if your ideal difficulty is higher or lower than mine, within reason, so long as you try to be consistent within each packet and write on things within the realm of importance and gettability.

I'll give standard discounts for buzzers and moderators, and two discounts of $50 and $25 for the first and second best packets I receive (in my opinion - taking into consideration the experience and skills of the writers, but not penalizing for experience, etc.)

My email: CryoBristow@aol.comEmail me there to register for the tourney, for questions about the tourney, or if you want to moderate or bring buzzers etc. to the tourney.

CURRENT SIDE EVENT SCHEDULE:

History Doubles (currently set for Sunday morning) Will Nediger's lit event (currently set after history doubles)

Oh, and if anyone has any side events they'd be looking to do CO weekend, post away (in some other thread perhaps labelled possible CO side events). It would be cool if some group of people put together a general interest side event, instead of Biochemistry Explosion, or something.

Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.

I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!

Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!

Is there some unknown time period between "late July" and "early August" which I'm not aware of? I mean, if you'd rather not have the tournament before July 28, then you have no choice but to roll over into August.

I'm fine with the spreadsheet making the 21st an option - I'll weigh my own preferences together with those who can and cannot attend. And yeah, put last names in there - who's the single named Matt? Weiner?

Also, please only put red spaces if you know you can't attend, not just that you'd rather it be a certain date all things considered.

Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.

I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!

Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!

About side events - if anyone wants to request that some event be officially scheduled for Friday night or Saturday night, feel free to let me know (with the understanding that those slots are not optimal due to reasons including travel mania, exhaustion, and the fuzz).

Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.

I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!

Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!

Andrew Hart had the excellent suggestion of honoring our many recently retired quizbowl luminaries with a cookout the weekend of Chicago Open. This wonderful event will be in my backyard at 7 PM the evening of Friday, July 20th. The following people are to be honored.

Please come to express your appreciation to these excellent individuals for their contribution to the game, as well as for good food and drink. The stipulations are that I'm asking for a $5 contribution (from everyone except the honorees), and if you plan to come, please RSVP to me at msteinbaum [at] gmail so I can form an estimate of how much food and beer/soft drinks will be needed.

My address is 5338 Harper Ave (commonly known as the John Maynard Keynes Institute), which is about 20 minutes' walk from the UChicago campus, and I will have the gate open that leads from the street directly to the backyard. If you'd like directions and are unable to come by them yourself for whatever reason, please say so in your RSVP. There's usually parking to be found in the neighborhood, especially along Blackstone (one block west of Harper) between 53rd and 55th streets.

How crazy would people call me if I asked (if necessary) teams/players to combine, even if it meant that a few teams had to have five players (and would get to play all five players in their games). Do we have enough buzzers that can accommodate five person teams (I think so, right?)

NOTE: The above may turn out not to be necessary, but I'm just throwing it out there.

Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.

I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!

Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!

No Rules Westbrook wrote:How crazy would people call me if I asked (if necessary) teams/players to combine, even if it meant that a few teams had to have five players (and would get to play all five players in their games).

I'd put it somewhere between "Electric Universe-era Alfven" and "whoever wrote those Phoebe the Photon pamphlets that kept popping up in the UC Berkeley physics building back in the day." That's not good company on either end, Ryan.

JamesIV wrote:For navigational purposes, do we know where on campus we'll be for this?

Not yet. Apparently the Chicago room reservation process has changed since last year.

I mean, I'd be rather surprised if you weren't somewhere between 57th Street and 59th Street north-south and between Ellis Avenue and University Avenue east-west. Unless you're looking to choose your parking spot right now, that should suffice for navigational purposes.

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:Hey Mike, John L. and I submitted our quarters of the packet before the first deadline, but I don't see us on your list. Is there a problem there?

Sorry, I missed copying that from the list of packets I have. There are also a few other discrepancies apparently, possibly because people sent packets only to Ryan. I will sync with him for a fully updated list.